Music as literature… a concept explored by songwriter, singer and guitarist Laura Cantrell who joins us to talk about her picaresque journey from Nashville to New York. The late writer and cultural critic Nat Hentoff recalls his famous associations from Charles Mingus to Billie Holiday and why Charlie Parker loved country music. Plus Delhi, LA soul man Toussaint McCall talks about the writing of his magnum opus “Nothing Takes the Place of You.” Country, jazz, blues, R&B and more come together for this hardcover edition of American Routes.

IN THE STUDIO

October 13th, 2004

American Routes takes a peek at the producers, sidemen and record company moguls who can make or break a record. New Orleans saxophonist Harold Battiste on playing with Ornette Coleman, acting as music director for Sonny & Cher, and founding his own jazz and blues label. Plus the inside story on Muddy Waters’ much maligned, but imaginative, 1968 album Electric Mud, by producer Marshall Chess and musicians Pete Cosey and Louis Satterfield.